Friday, November 07, 2014

The reviewers over on The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow interviewed me. Check it out! We're even giving away a signed copy of 25 Roses.

The release date of my second book is rapidly approaching, so I'm spending a lot of time preparing postcards, mailing out bookmarks, and doing blog interviews. I love every minute of it! Especially now that I (kind of) know what I'm doing.But, here's something you might not know: most of us really have no idea what we're doing. You just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks.Here's a great marketing blog that might help, though:

This timeline has been especially enlightening. There's a Part 2, as well. It covers what to do with your author copies, where to send postcards, and more. It's mostly geared toward children's/young adult authors, but it can be useful for someone marketing any book, to be honest.What marketing blogs/tips have you found helpful?Don't forget to enter the giveaway for a signed copy of 25 Roses!

Wednesday, November 05, 2014

Today 25 Roses is featured on The Secret Files of Fairday Morrow. Check it out!

Now for today's blog...Halloween is over, but the candy still remains. In most houses, at least a few pieces of sweet stuff stick around in the days and weeks after the big night.

Moms cringe when they see their children downing those morsels of candy every night. Do they really want a houseful of hyper children?

For decades, there has been one prevailing thought about children and sugar. It was passed down from our great grandparents to our grandparents to our moms. And we just keep passing it along. Sugar makes us hyper, right? Our moms told us so.

Since kids get hyper after eating sugar, adults therefore assume if they're feeling tired in the afternoon, a little office birthday cake will do the trick.

Wrong. Sugar doesn't make kids or adults hyper. At all. Separate research studies published in theJournal of the American Medical Association and Journal for Abnormal Child Psychology showed that sugar had no more impact on a child's behavior than a placebo. In fact, in one instance researchers found moms rated their children as more hyperactive when they thought they'd had sugar and they actually hadn't. To be technical about it...

"If you’re energy depleted (i.e. an elite athlete), fructose can be converted to glycogen (liver starch) as a storehouse for ready energy, which can then be fished out of your liver if your body needs glucose in the future (for more exercise or if you’re starving). But most of us aren’t energy depleted, so fructose gets turned into liver fat, driving insulin resistance."--Time Magazine.What myth have you found still persists in our society today, despite scientific evidence to the contrary?

Monday, November 03, 2014

2014 will likely go down in history as the year women became inordinately obsessed with our eyelashes.Yes, eyelashes.

If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably aren't very active on Facebook. Or you don't pay attention to an announcement approximately half of your female friends seem to have posted.

They're all selling this $30 mascara called Younique that promises to change your life, improve your mood, and "uplift, empower, and validate" you. What does it do? This:

It's mascara--just in a four-step process. You put your mascara on, then this gel mascara, then fibers, then more gel mascara. Here's the thing, though...those Younique saleswomen will promise you the moon and the stars to get you to buy their product.

In one situation, a girl who was on a TV show I watched this summer chose to help sell Younique. Over the summer, I heard her say on camera that she uses Latisse, a $100+ per month prescription-based product that makes your lashes grow. Yet now that she's being given free Younique products, they post pictures of her super-long lashes and pass it off as being 100% mascara.

I even mentioned on one of her posts that I heard her say earlier she uses Latisse. Her salesperson chimed in to quickly explain to me that this former TV star wears Younique, not Latisse. The saleswoman also answered questions from others with inaccurate information, as I've seen almost every other host do.So, here's what you should know before you pay $30 for this great mascara:

NO, it doesn't come off easily. In fact, even eye makeup remover doesn't take it off. A combination of cleanser, eye makeup remover, and time finally removes the stuff. If you use it every day, you might end up with a mess.

It clumps. You'll need an eyelash separator. Or talent with separating your eyelashes with a safety pin without poking your eye out.

It will not lengthen your lashes. It makes them fuller. Period. If you see someone saying it'll give you spider-leg eyes, that person is lying.

If it doesn't turn your life into magic, they'll tell you you're using it incorrectly. None of their advice makes any difference, by the way. Most of us know how to put on mascara by now.

That said, here's Younique on me. The stuff is pretty good, I must say, considering even with regular mascara my lashes are pretty much nonexistent. But you can see a little clumping. You can also see I don't have spider-leg eyes! That may be a good thing.

All that said, it's a GREAT product. I love the way it makes my lashes look. I just think you should know before you buy what you're getting...so you can invest in a couple of bottles of eye makeup remover and a few bags of cotton balls! What "hostess party" items have you bought? Did you find the hostess exaggerated the claims to get you to buy?